15 Million UK Homes Are Overpaying For Their Broadband

First Utility have discovered during recent research that 15 million UK homes are overpaying for their broadband, are you?

It’s a very badly kept secret that when signing up for anything these days, new customers tend to get the best deals. From mobile phones to television services the best offers are pretty much always reserved just for new customers.

A clear ploy to attract new customers, which sadly seems often to be at the expense of existing customers, whose prices seem to go up quickly and it seems constantly. Especially after the initial offer contract runs out.

First Utility did some research recently to see just how many people are overpaying for their broadband after the initial ‘offers’ expire and found that it was around 15 million UK homes that are. That’s a huge amount of people paying more money than they need to, with many of them not realising that the rates they pay would be so much higher after their initial contract period ended!

They also found that:

72% of all homes with broadband are paying more than they need

The average difference between teaser rates and out of contract rates is £113 a year

Only 10% of broadband bill payers could recall having been alerted to their new rates

92% supported making it mandatory for providers to alert you when the contract term is up

With an average extra £113 being paid by people after their initial contract ends, that’s £1.7 billion that First Utility feels is being wasted across the UK.

Here’s part of a table from them to show you how much your county is overspending on its broadband each year. For the full table if your county isn’t below, pop to the First Utility website. Number one on the full table is London.

First Utility have saved the UK more than 500 million pounds in lower energy bills since they were founded, and now they are shaking up the broadband market as well. They offer some of the cheapest broadband deals in the country with NO out of contract price increase, so when you sign up you know what to expect.

It’s appalling that millions of families in the UK are being ripped off by their broadband supplier. We have already learnt that loyalty doesn’t pay in energy and it’s shocking to see the same thing happening in broadband.

The big providers have been let off easily for far too long. Reminding customers that their contract is coming to an end shouldn’t be too much effort for providers and can help many people save hundreds of pounds.

I strongly support First Utility’s decision for no out of contract price hike. Its determination to help customers cut overspending on broadband is something I hope Ofcom will take into account in its consultation to make the telecoms sector fairer for customers.

If you want to know more about avoiding the broadband out of contract ‘sting’ then pop to the First Utility website, where you can also see how easy it is to switch broadband suppliers!

Stevie x

Collaborative post, but as always all thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.